Beauty in Northern Thailand

Deep breath. Mmmm. Fresh air. I had forgotten how beautiful Thailand is. My home is in a flat area; a small town. We are missing much of the vegetation and beauty that flows through the rest of Thailand. But, on my bus ride up to Nan, I began to remember. Looking out the window, watching strands of water streak across the side of the bus, I saw mountains of lush green, dips where rivers and streams flowed through. Clouds hovered just below the tops of the mountains hiding some of the beauty that lay beneath. Jumping off of the bus, I took a deep breath. I noticed that I was not hot. In fact, it was almost chilly…almost. The sticky humidity that I feel day in and out was left at my site…yes, I love Northern Thailand.
It took me 11 hours to get to Nan (9 of those riding the bus) and I ended up staying for 3 full days teaching at an English camp. Each day we had a different age group that we were teaching and we adapted our lessons to match. The first day, I taught 1-3^rd graders about fruit. We played a game where they would run up to the board and attempt to be the first one to slap the fruit that I would call out. The 2^nd day we taught 4-6^th graders and the 3^rd was 7-9^th graders. In both of these sessions, I was in charge of teaching them about clothes. In this class, after teaching them the words, I would have the kids run to the front of the room and put on the clothes that I would call out (skirt, bra, boxers, pants, shirt, etc…) and then have them tell me what they are wearing. What was interesting to see was that the 4-6^th graders actually knew more English than the 7-9^th graders. When I asked about this, I learned that many of the older students were actually from the local hill tribes and they were only able to come to this school when space was available. Often times, openings were not available until the students were older, so they were not educated the same, or in English, like they would be if they were able to join the school at a younger age.

This is a picture of me and one of the students after she put on some of the clothes. *Yes, I was holding up the peace sign…it's a thing in Thailand
This English Camp was super fun. My host, a volunteer named Megan, served us French toast with syrup, Cereal, Jello Shots, Apples, seedless grapes, chocolate chip cookies, etc…delicious. She also had a local coffee shop that made pretty good coffee.
Since Chiang Mai was only a little ways away, I decided to wake up early the day after the camp and head over there on my way home since a few other volunteers had to go through there as well. Once there, I headed straight for Starbucks and sat there reading my book for an hour or so. I was about 30 minutes into it when I looked up and started to listen…I could understand every conversation in the place…everyone was speaking English. Definitely an American moment. We also at an amazing salad place…I haven't had a good salad in 8 months…AMAZING. And, of course, I had to pick up my farang essentials on my way out at the local farang store.
I was only in Chiang Mai for a very short trip, but it is a beautiful city. It is very easy to get around either by walking or song taew and everything is much cheaper there than BKK. I purchased a silver ring and earrings made by the local Karen tribe and I picked up a silver (maybe fake) bracelet with elephants on it from a local shop. It was a good day. I can't wait to go back there and hang out again.
Now, it's back to my real life. After catching up on some much needed sleep, I hope to spend a couple evenings this week with the poo-soon-ayu group (elderly group) and join them for their Thai Chai and meditation. After a few weeks of getting to know the elderly in my community, I hope to start in on one of my projects I designed with my Balot.